Gehlen’s pragmatism concealed a refusal to test his claims empirically

Evidence

The debate thus seemed to end in stalemate. Or was this deceptive? Was Gehlen not the loser? It was precisely the defender of the attitude Out into hostile life!' who was presenting himself here in a protective role. It was precisely Gehlen, who called himself an empirical philosopher’, who was not prepared to leave matters to experimental testing. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2488

Categorization

• QUESTION: How did Gehlen reconcile his ‘empirical philosopher’ self-label with resisting empirical verification of self-determination?
• XREF: connects to: Even a model’s creator initially refused its empirically unpalatable conclusions — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 248; Adorno rejected empirical research criticism despite its validity — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1012; Horkheimer attacked pragmatism for reducing truth to what conforms to present reality — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 308 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Even a model’s creator initially refused its empirically unpalatable conclusions #exemplifies (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 248
• Adorno rejected empirical research criticism despite its validity #exemplifies (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1012
• Horkheimer attacked pragmatism for reducing truth to what conforms to present reality #corroborates (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 308
• Lay theorists avoid seeking disconfirming evidence rather than falsifying hypotheses #exemplifies (0.78)
• Adorno concluded important matters cannot be approached empirically #complicates (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2119
• High dogmatism predicts refusal to change belief regardless of evidence’s direction. #exemplifies (0.72) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2722